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PYEONGCHANG, SOUTH KOREA—When Canadian Olympic GM Sean Burke introduced his team to the country last month, he laid out a narrative that suggested the national men’s entry at the Games would be a lot of fun to follow.

These were players, the Team Canada brain trust told us, who’d spent key moments in their careers being told “no.” These were the undrafteds and the unwanteds — the castoffs of the Canadian hockey factory. Yet because of the collective setbacks that made the NHL a non-option, these were also the unbreakables — honourable lovers of the game who’d persevered through Russian winters and Euro existences to anonymously pursue a passion.

Now that Canada’s run at a third straight Olympic gold medal is over, we’ve come to find out there’s a damn good reason why many of these guys are mostly anonymous. After a 4-3 semifinal embarrassment at the hands of the not-so-mighty Germans, it’s probably only fair most of them stay that way. Legends aren’t made in bronze-medal games. Journeymen don’t morph into Olympic heroes by not showing up for the first 40 minutes of the biggest game of their lives. You don’t get points for effort when you dig yourself two three-goal deficits against the national team of a country that for decades clung to a 1976 bronze medal as its Olympic highpoint — until this Olympics.

“Doesn’t matter who you’re playing,” said Andrew Ebbett, Canada’s Swiss-league winger. “You can’t win a game like that without playing 60 minutes.”

A slow start in the first period coupled with some ill discipline in the second cost the Canadians dearly. (Steve Russell / Toronto Star)

If this Canadian team was hoping to entice its fellow citizens to make an emotional investment in their Olympic fate, they succeeded in an unexpected way. The second period wasn’t even over and they’d made it hard not to hate most of them.

Where do you start? For the first 40 minutes they unfurled a shabby, conservative version of the game that played into the hands of a trapping German team that lacked talent but, under coach Marco Sturm, were big and tight and organized. Canada’s zone entries, especially on power plays, weren’t crisp enough to create sustained pressure. Their line changes were a shambles.

When Brooks Macek scored to make it 1-0 for Germany, this on a 4-on-3 power play created by a questionable faceoff violation by Rene Bourque, the goal punctuated a sequence in which Canada whiffed on a series of clearing attempts. When Matthias Plachta made it 2-0 — well, that was Gilbert Brule late with the back pressure, albeit in the midst of a well-executed German rush.

And it only got uglier. By the time an unforgiveable Rob Klinkhammer turnover at the offensive blueline keyed a German counterattack that made it 3-0 early in the second period — Frank Mauer scoring with a stick-between-the-legs tap-in of a Marcel Goc setup — the Germans weren’t just beating the Canadians, they were Globetrottering them.

Canada bounced back on the power play to make it 3-1. But after another in a too-long line of dumb Canadian penalties — Eric O’Dell, centre of coach Willie Desjardins’ over-played fourth line, going off for hooking — it was 4-1.

Then Brule took a 5-minute penalty for checking to the head, levelling a vicious and irresponsible forearm to the helmet that left David Wolf sprawled limply at centre ice, and it wasn’t just a loss, it was verging on a disgrace. This was Germany, a team that needed a shootout to beat tiny Norway in their final group-stage game. This was Germany — a team over which Canada previously held a 15-0 all-time Olympic record. And this was a German team that announced it shouldn’t be underestimated by beating Sweden in the quarter-finals. And somehow Canada couldn’t hang?

“They were the better team for the first 40 minutes,” acknowledged Canada captain Chris Kelly.

What went wrong? Maybe it was Desjardins’ infectious nervousness, or his odd overreliance on his bottom-six grinders, playing the old-time Saskatchewan stereotype to a tee. Even in a 4-on-4 situation needing desperately to score, Desjardins tossed out O’Dell and Maxim Lapierre, his skill-challenged energy guys. (Shockingly, it didn’t go well).

Germany opened the scoring in the men's semifinal in Pyeongchang. (Steve Russell / Toronto Star)

You couldn’t blame the defence. Blueliners Chris Lee and Max Noreau — both of whom had two assists — did what they could to tirelessly push the puck and create offence. Ditto Mat Robinson, who scored an early third-period goal that provided a smidgeon of hope.

You couldn’t blame Derek Roy — the veteran centreman was the one Canadian forward you could count on, and Roy’s mid-third-period goal to make it 4-3 kept it interesting.

You also couldn’t really blame goaltender Kevin Poulin. Although he looked less imposing than he had in a masterful relief performance in the quarter-finals, Poulin stopped a penalty shot down 4-2 in the third that, had he not, might have turned it into a laugher instead of a nail-biter.

The Germans were worthy winners. The moment’s other winner? Gary Bettman. This shambolic excuse for a tournament only underlined the indispensability of NHL talent.

Some on the German side cried tears of post-game joy. Christian Ehrhoff, a longtime NHLer now back playing in the German league, talked about how it had been years since his national hockey squad had been on German national TV. Macek, a Winnipegger with dual citizenship, gushed about how a victory like this might steer at least few German kids away from the national obsession with soccer and toward hockey.

But Canada’s head-shakingly poor performance, if it doesn’t drive a nation of kids to ski cross or short track, will haunt those responsible with regret.

“Olympic Games, man, we were so excited the last day and a half,” said Ebbett. “You see Russia win (the other semifinal). You see the opportunity to play them in the gold-medal final. Ah — we just missed it. We just didn’t have it tonight.”

When you’re a member of Canada’s unwanteds, there won’t be another opportunity to get it back.

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